Musinger Garden
St. Cloud MN

“I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.” Jeremiah 31:34b       

Who among us has lived so perfectly, there isn’t something, we’d just as soon, God forget?

I think of words I said, I regret today. Judgements I’ve made, that were less than Christ like. Actions I once thought wise, proved not to be. Or, stubborn pride that kept me from listening to another’s genuine concern and insight. I remember certainties of an earlier time, I promoted as fact and truth, only to learn how very wrong I was. I recall moments of indifference, instead of a loving response to a person’s need. To say nothing of parenting slip ups. I do hope God chooses to forget certain parts of my life. Jeremiah’s words bring a sigh of relief!

Bruce Boak uses the term, “Divine Amnesia,” in response to God’s promise. He writes: *“God sees that forgiving allows for mistakes and offense, but forgetting places their remembrance behind, so that they can no longer be a barrier to relationship . . . forgiving accepts sincere regret but forgetting, releases harbored anger and hurt . . . God see that forgiveness is an act of compassion prompting worth and value in another, but forgetting is an act of love that reinforces the desire that the relationship not be broken.” 

“So God chose to be amnesiac and mercifully to forgive.”

God’s desire is not to punish, but for healing and restoration in our relationship with the Holy One . . . to forgive and to remember our sin no more. For God’s “Divine Amnesia,” I give thanks.


* Bruce Boak, Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 4, pg 174